With the Trump administration moving to further tighten the US borders, an unprecedented number of US asylum seekers have headed to Canada, resulting in Ottawa changing their immigration policy. This was according to the Wall Street Journal, on Wednesday.
President Donald Trump began to enact a travel ban on people from certain countries earlier this year, resulting in Justin Trudeau, the Prime Minister of Canada, tweeting that his nation was open to refugees. But, with around 7,000 asylum seekers entering Canada from the US during the last two months, with more possibly intending to follow, Ottawa has clarified that undocumented immigrants arriving in Canada illegally may be deported back to their home nations, and that immigrants are unlikely to be granted asylum if their application was unsuccessful in the US.
Ahmed Hussen, the Canadian Minister for Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, told the Wall Street Journal that Canada was still committed to giving protection to genuine refugees and asylum seekers, but that those communities spread a good deal of false information and that losing, or never having, legal status in the US is not grounds for being granted asylum in Canada.
Canada is especially worried about what could happen if the Trump administration fails to find a solution for Dreamers, or to renew temporary protected status for the almost 60,000 Haitian immigrants when it runs out in January, despite Haiti still not having fully recovered from the devastating 2010 earthquake.